A common theme in all three songs is loss, handled not without humour and irony. In "Nicolette", a young girl picking flowers on a meadow escapes a wolf and a page, but loses her innocence to an older gentleman offering silver. In "Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis" (Three beautiful birds of Paradise), a girl whose beloved is in the war understands from the gifts of blue, white and red birds (the national colours of France) that he died. In "Ronde", young people lose respect for the warnings of the older men and women. The texts recall the atmosphere of
Renaissance music, and are supported by equally archaic music with
plagal cadences and ancient turns of phrasing, with the music closely following the words. The music alludes to
Renaissance chanson and
madrigal.
Nicolette The first song is set in
A minor. The
theme is followed by three
variations – that of the wolf, that of the page, graceful and aerial, and that of the rich Barbon. In the three verses, the motif is presented alternately by all voices, the
tempo varying from one verse to another, both bouncing and fearful. By combining the same melody with different accompaniment, Ravel achieves a form which is both strophic and theme with variations.
Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis The second song (Three beautiful birds of Paradise) is set in
F minor. The song is the only one of the three clearly referring to the war, the colours of the birds being the colours of the flag of France, and the refrain "Mon ami, z'il est à la guerre". The first verses are presented by the "heavenly" voice of the
soprano, continued by the
tenor. The song was described as "of the three pieces, the most refined, undoubtedly" and as an "exquisite ballad full of tenderness". Ravel gave it a form of a free
rondo, in a form described as ABABA.A, while the traditional form might be ABACA, deviating from it by no contrasting C section but a repeat of A as a
coda. The theme of longing is expressed by a languid melody with sparse accompaniment, in modal harmonies.
Ronde The third song is in
A major, with a
Lydian D-sharp. The text is full of word-play in the tradition of 16th-century chansons, and has been described as "a virtuosic display of tongue-twisting verbal dexterity", and compared to that of
Stephen Sondheim's
Into the Woods. "In his display of erudite demonic science, Ravel has mixed all traditions: ancient, medieval and even oriental" and the
polyphony is becoming more and more virtuosic. This song shows features of Basque folk music. The form is strictly strophic, with three contrasting sections in each stanza. == Reception and legacy ==